CH15 Friends
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CAPTIAIN'S QUARTERS
0630 and the day starts like the previous ones. Kate and Jim fumble around each other in their quarters as the get ready for the day. Michael and Paulson are at the door as they exit. Kate wrinkles her nose but manages a friendly enough greeting to the two men.
"So you catch the game last night," Kirk asks Michaels hitting the button for the mess hall.
"Hell yeah," Michaels answers enthusiastically before clearing his throat. "Um I mean yes I did," he changes his response eyeing Kate. She gives a small grin pretending not to have heard. Kate finds it very funny the ship's crew is so careful with their language around the kids. Her family was divided almost exactly in half with Han and Mara living up to their pirate reputations with language and deeds; whereas Luke and Leia always showed more restraint. The difference is Kate and the kids never acted like Han or Mara. It was a given that you did not do that or you had better be prepared for the consequences. In trying to act tough, Kate took on the rough personas of her family. In hindsight, she should have acted more like Luke and Leia from the start on the Enterprise. She only started the cursing to look tough. She kept it up to annoy the adults. Now it is a habit. If Han or Luke heard her language, they would shoot her on the spot. The men's laughter snaps her out of her daze. The Kate watches Jim's easy interaction with his men. If she did not know better, Kate would never place Kirk as the Captain. He is exactly what Han would have been like if he stayed in the military.
"Kate," a voice yells from across the room as Jim and Kate walk through the mess hall door.
"Can we sit with them?" Kate asks biting her lip anxiously.
"Sure. What do you," Jim starts but Kate is already gone. Jim and Bone noticed from the start Kate is most relaxed when around the other kids. They decided to eat breakfast together as a way for Kate to acclimate to her new life. Jim is just happy not to fight with his daughter. He gets their food and walks over to the table balancing the two trays.
"Morning McCoy's," Jim says setting down a tray in front of Kate.
"What the hell is this?" Kate asks looking at a pink pudding, a long yellow fruit, some toasted bread and a bowl of what looked like gruel. "Where at the waffles?"
"Language young lady. This is your last warning," he says scowling at her. "It's yogurt, toast, banana, and oatmeal. Kids need a variety of foods not just waffles every morning, "Jim informs Kate.
Kirk's words and tone get an amused look from Bones. "Good one but I pulled your nutrition stats last night," Bones laughs. "I would say it is a safe bet the replicators won't be producing pizza, cheeseburgers, or waffles for at least a week."
"You can't do that. Can he do that?" Kate glares at Bones.
"Yes and drop the attitude that is waiting to bubble out right now. I told you last night there would be consequences to your language and attitude. You have been put on notice so don't test me," Jim takes a large swallow of coffee locking eyes with Kate.
Kate holds his stare for a moment but then she starts to get that icky feeling at the base of her spine she always gets when she knows she is in trouble. She is accustomed to this feeling with Han, but it's weird that she is now getting it with Kirk. She begins to squirm trying to get rid of it as it starts to travel up her back and into the rest of her body. Kate notices that Joanna has a bowl of the gruel looking stuff and takes a big spoonful. Kate is not typically a fussy eater, but she was not prepared for this after three days of waffles. "Oh my Gawd dis is gwoss," she reaches for Jim's drink to wash down the bland sticky stuff still left in her mouth. "Its wike dat dwang fwom Kessel," she curses but figures he couldn't understand her anyways.
"Hey," Jim says grabbing the cup from her mouth as she gulps it down.
"What? You gave me some last night," she complains. Bones turns raising an eyebrow in disbelief at Jim.
"That was to teach you how to use the replicator," Jim says taking a drink from the mug. Jim knows Bones has caught him but pretends not to notice the paternal stare from his best friend.
"If you think I am skipping coffee every morning you're not firing on all thrusters," Kate crosses her arms defiantly.
"Better word choice but it still doesn't change the outcome. No coffee," Jim repeats eating his toast.
"Why," she demands but before Jim can answer Bones jumps in.
"Because it has caffeine which is the most widely used, legal stimulant in the universe that should be banned for anyone under 18. Causes high blood pressure, liver damage, insomnia, irritability," Bones lists.
"We don't need any more irritability now do we?" Jim mutters taking a sip raising his eyebrows in agreement.
Kate bristles at the rebuff. "Ya know you're not a," Kate starts ready for a fight, but Joanna interrupts her.
"Come on Kate we are gonna be late. Bye Dad…Uncle Jim," Joanna hastily replies pulling Kate from the table. Today they are planning on showing her Smuggler's Run. The last thing Joanna wants is for Kate to be grounded. As with John, Kate allows Joanna to save her ass from self-destruction.
"So how's it going at home?" Bones asks as the two dad's watch their girls leave.
"She asked me to tuck her in last night," Jim says draining his coffee never taking his eyes off her.
"That's a start Jim," Bones says as Kirk gets up and walks around the table to sit directly across from him.
"And then she hugged me. I mean really hugged me and I loved it until I noticed she was crying."
"You are gonna have to expect that Jim. It's will take time for her to adjust," Bones tries to comfort his friend.
"Yeah, but this was different. It was one of those my heart is crushed girl cries." He tries to take a drink from the empty cup again. He does not feel very comfortable with all this personal talk. Bones is a great listener to his girl conquest stories from bars or one-night stands, but this is different. This is personal. This is his daughter. "I didn't not know what to do so I laid down in her bed and held her until she cried herself to sleep." Bones just listens patiently to his friend. The silence makes Jim continue talking. "And you know what I was thinking the whole time Bones? What the hell happened to her for the past years 12 years? Fuck." He yells a little louder than he realized drawing looks from the surrounding tables. "You know I used to think that if Lauren walked back into my life I would just be happy she was back. I would never say a word or ask questions. I would take her back and move on, but now I think if I saw her, I would kill her with my bare hands. I mean what kind of mother leaves her child alone."
"Jim we don't know why," Bones starts in a sympathetic tone, but Jim is so angry he slams the cup to the table breaking the handle off.
"No. There is no excuse good enough. Hell, maybe not the first two hours after meeting her but now…I would leave Star Fleet for a couple of years if I had to for her not to be alone again. I couldn't let her go now any more than I can stop breathing." He says staring at the broken handle still in his hand. He is extremely uncomfortable with all this sharing now. "I'm gonna be late," he says and walks out.
.
READY ROOM
"OK people impress me with something," Kirk says sitting down to his staff meeting.
"I've listened to the lassie's explanation of hyperspace travel and I gotta say Cap'n it blows me mind. The physics are sound be to be sure, but we do na have anything with enough power to phase matter directly into subspace." Scotty leans forward in his chair across the table. "From what I can tell that's how they completely side step the known speed limit of light constant. Whatever they are usin' to do this is completely different from any engine design we got," Scotty says.
"Come on Mr. Scott there has got to be," Kirk questions his chief engineer.
"Captain what Mr. Scott is attempting to explain would be akin to asking you prehistoric Neanderthals to build the Enterprise with stone age tools," Mr. Spock says with a matter of fact tone.
"So we can't reverse engineer one of their engines. What are our other options?" Kirk asks leaning on the table with both hands clasped in front of him.
"I think I hava way to stop them in this hyperspace though," Mr. Scott says. "In order for these bloody bastards to travel, they hafta have a very specific set of coordinates to follow. Think of it like a road sir. As long as ya stay on the road, ya won't hit anything. But if ya were to veer off the road ya'd hit a tree."
"So do we call Botany for some suggestions about landscaping then," Jack says. He is a very smart man, but all this science stuff gives him a headache. "Plain English. Why can't these engineers use plain English," he thinks.
"What Mr. Scott means Coronel O'Neill is that their courses must circumvent strong gravitational fields. In theory Captain, a gravity field around a Super Nova, black hole or another celestial body would disrupt the Bachyonic and Tachyonic bonds holding them in hyperspace."
"So that's their Achilles heel," Kirk says visibly relaxing now that they have some kind of working plan in place. "A strong enough gravitational force will essentially stall them out and bring them back to real space."
"Correct in theory Captain; however, we do not have a way to generate enough power to create a gravity field strong enough. Nor do we know where to point such a device," Spock concludes.
"It would be like skeet shooting blindfolded, while parachuting," Scotty makes the image dramatic enough for anyone to understand.
"What about a net? You know like in fishing." Jack suggests. You can catch a helluva lot more fish with a net than a single hook. And if the net is really, really big," Jack gestures widely with his arms.
"You're a bloody genius Jack," Scotty says standing up and going to the conference screen to visually sketch what is in his mind. "If we created a lot of little gravity wells and placed them here and here and here," Scotty draws on the screen. "Their net force may be able to stop the bloody Jedi. We could have a hypernet lining the bloody neutral zone if need be." Kirk smiles at another new term his crew has coined.
"Excellent Mr. Scott. Keep me apprised of any further developments. Dismissed," Kirk says as everyone begins to leave the room. "Sulu a word," Jim says before his helmsman leaves. He takes a seat next to Kirk wondering what this about.
"Mr. Sulu, I have all the faith in the word with you, but I can't let Kate go piloting today," Kirk leans back in his chair.
"Sir?" he questions
"She piped off with Uhura and it's more of a punishment thing," Kirk explains. "Just tell her she can't go. If she complains direct her to the bridge and then take everyone else when she comes up here."
"Understood," he says leaving the room.
.
LATER ON THE BRIDGE
"Hey are you busy," Kate asks entering the bridge in the early afternoon.
"No," he says smiling laying down the PADD in his hand. "What up buttercup?"
She smiles in spite herself at his upbeat attitude. She has seen Kirk mad and it was more than a little scary but for the past couple of days he has made such an effort to be approachable. Begrudgingly Kate is starting to see how he won her mom over with her easy charm, quick wit, and great smile. "Apparently I missed something yesterday and everyone is going for pilot training after lunch. Sulu told me to come tell you I was going," Kate states with a matter of fact tone.
Kirk's demeanor slightly changes at her expectant tone. He shifts in his seat resting both elbows on his knees with his hands clasped in front of him before he starts talking. "I don't think that's a good idea right now sweetie," he says.
Kate feels her cheeks starting to go red. Everyone on the Bridge can hear their conversation. "What the hell. He can't tell me no," she thinks but is smart enough not to say anything right here. Kirk does not seem to have a problem talking public, but she wants to make him change his mind without the audience. Kirk sees that she is not going to take no for an answer but is glad she is not making a scene.
"Come on," he says leading her into the ready room. He takes a seat at the head of the table crossing one of his legs over his lap. In no time, Kate is demanding an explanation.
"Look I forgot to tell you last night so just comm down to Sulu and you can get back to work," she explains. Kirk takes a deep breath but before he begins Kate adds, "I really didn't mean that whole thing about stealing a shuttle you know. Where would I go?" she says sarcastically but with enough humor that Kirk has to know she was joking.
"I spoke to Sulu earlier today and told him I couldn't let you go this time. Maybe next week okay," he responds with a tone that clearly signals his mind is made up.
Kate feels like she has been slapped across the face. "Why? You can't believe how incredibly hard it was for me to come up her and ASK for your permission to do something," she say looking almost like she is ready to cry.
"Well, you'd better get used to it because it going to happen at lot." He then softens his tone. "Baby girl I told you in Sick Bay that you that when adults make rules and you don't follow them there will be consequences." Kirk leans on the table propping his head up with two fingers on his temple and thumb under his jaw ready for her to explode. "Next week."
"What rules are you talking about? I went to school, came home on time, hell I"
"Language," he growls. Kate will fall in line with her metaphors use of this is just the beginning of her disappointments on the Enterprise.
She restarts without the slip-up. "I even went to bed when YOU said to. What did I do wrong?" Her eyes start to fill up with tears.
"Look I hate this as much as you but your attitude yesterday with Uhura over what languages you would learn was unacceptable. We had other issues last night and it slipped my mind."
"That bitch," Kate states shocked quickly covering her mouth with both hands. Kate does feel bad about this mistake. Uhura has been nothing but nice to her.
"Right there is your problem. You think you can say what you want and do what you want whenever you want."
"No, I don't," she snaps back indignantly.
"Really what did you say when you came up to the Bridge. You said and I quote 'Sulu told me to come tell you I was going.' You came up here expecting me to do exactly what you wanted. So far, you haven't shown me that you are nothing more than a spoiled brat when you don't get your way so there have to be consequences."
A tear slips out of her eye and she reaches up and wipes it away as fast as she can. Kate will not show Kirk he can hurt her feelings. "I just thought it was a smarter choice to learn Klingon than stupid Vulcan," she reasons.
"Probably is," Kirk agrees. "And if you would have just stopped and the three of us talked after class, like she suggested, you would not be in this position. We will talk about this later tonight if you want," Kirk suggests.
"Captain sorry to interrupt but we have a message from Star Fleet command for you," Uhura's clear soprano fills the room. In the silence between Kirk and Kate, it sounds deafening. It also sparks a plan in Kate.
"Understood," Kirk responds. "Patch it to my office." Kate knows her time to change his mind as decreased dramatically.
"I will apologize right now or in class in front of everyone. Whatever you want just tell Sulu you changed your mind ok please," she begs wiping another tear away.
"I think just telling Uhura sorry will be fine, but no still means no. They will be back in about an hour. Go back to class and work on your homework, read ahead, do anything until they come back," Kirk stands making his way to his office.
Before Kirk disappears into the small room at the end of the ready room Kate yells out, "I could have lied. I could have told him you said yes. I did not have to come up here ya know."
Kirk turns and walks slowly towards Kate who backs into the wall. "Go ahead. Try it. The only reason you are not getting into more trouble about this is that you are accepting responsibility for your actions." He turns leaving the room in several quick strides.
Kate waits for him to go leaving through the opposite door so she does not have to take the turbo lift in the bridge. Walking back down to the empty classroom, Kate reflects on how shitty her life has become. Ever since she got here, it has been rules upon rules designed to make her subservient to them. No one at home did this. She scrolls through the pages of Basic Klingon not even reading the pages as she contemplates her status as Kate Kirk. As Kate Solo, she made all her own decision. Well, that really wasn't the case, if she thinks about it. Han and Leia were more absentee parents with lax rules, but she did have much more freedom. Kate lets a tear run down her cheek. She misses home so much. She misses Jacen calling her squirt and Jaina braiding her hair. She also misses 3PO's constant babbling about manners. The more she thinks of home the sadder she becomes. This place will never be her home. Kate hears the door swoosh open indicating the kids returning. John is the first one back.
"Why didn't you meet us down there?" John asks. "It was so cool we…..Hey, are you crying?" He walks to the desk in front of her and bends down to look at her face. A large tear falls onto the PADD she is looking at. Kate is so miserable she does not even try to wipe it off. "God, why do girls always cry," John says sighing deeply. "I can come back later," John attempts to leave. The last think he wants is to comfort a balling girl. "You had so much promise too," he thinks heading for the door. A loud sniff by Kate stops him, as he is just about to activate the palm lock. He then remembers what his mom said this morning about trying to be extra nice to Kate. That she was alone and scared and had no friends. John thinks for a moment and then says, "My mom never cries but when she does she always goes to her special place to do it. We have a special place here on the Enterprise that no one knows about only us. Wanna go cry there?" he asks.
"No, I don't want to go cry there. I do not want to cry anywhere nimrod. Boys are so dumb," Kate thinks but the idea of a place that no one knows about interests her. "Sure," she says wiping the tears away. "But aren't we gonna get in trouble for leaving class are we. Kirk is pissed enough at me."
"Nawh we get out early during shuttle training," he says. "Come on but don't cry 'til we get there. I don't want anyone tellin' my dad I made you cry." John leads her out the room and into a turbo shaft. They ride for one floor before it stops to let someone else on. "I didn't do it Mom," John starts to protest as a pretty blonde wearing a red uniform gets on the turbo.
Even with John drawing attention to the fact he did not make Kate cry, Sam would have noticed her immediately. "You ok honey," she says bending down sweeping the hair from Kate's face. Sam's heart breaks seeing her red eyes and wet cheeks. How Kate hasn't been a sopping, crying mess after everything that has happened the past few days is a mystery.
"I just went back to class to get my PADD and she was crying. I swear," John continues to protest nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot. Tomorrow they are scheduled for shore leave. It has been a month since they were dirt side and that was barely a colony. If Kate makes him miss shore leave, John will be pissed.
"OK, John okay," she assures her son he is faultless. "Anything I can do?" She leans in close to her ear and whispers, "girl to girl."
Kate signs and shrugs her shoulders. "Dads can be total bishwag," she wipes her eyes. Sam reminds Kate of Leia with her soft voice and sparkling eyes. Kate wishes she knew Sam better. If she did, Kate would fall into her arms crying about everything wrong in her life like she did with Leia. However, Kate doesn't know Sam that well and she is her silent enemy like the rest of the crew.
Sam O'Neill crinkles up her forehead for a moment not understanding bishwag. She brushes it off having a good idea it meant something along the lines of asshole but hoping it was more like dork. Sam clearly sees Kate needs more than a friendly word. "John can you give us a minute," Sam motions to the door. "Hit hold for me," Sam asks as he leaves. Sam doesn't ask but takes Kate into a hug as soon as the door is closed. "Everything is going to be all right I promise you that," Sam says softly stroking her hair. Kate breaks into sobs imagining it is Leia, Mara, or Jaina saying the words. Kate hates that she needs this but the day has been so terrible Kate cannot help but want a hug. After several minutes, the door re-opens. John sees Kate smiling. "If you ever need anything call me. I am always here to listen and maybe get a mani-pedi. With two boys, I never get to do the fun girl stuff." John enters the turbo fidgeting as Sam gushes about having someone to get her hair done with and take shopping. Kate's shy smile makes the conversation bearable. When turbo stops at the correct floor John pulls Kate out so fast she stumbles on the lip of the turbo. "Be home at 6 for dinner OK," Sam yells after him. John gives her the O'Neill over the head wave to signal he heard.
"Your mom seems nice," Kate tells him following him to a door to that looks like a closet.
"Yeah I guess," he looks up and down the hall before walking in.
"Great secret hiding place," Kate says. John gives her a scowl moving a dusty cart to an access panel. Behind the panel is a shaft he crawls into motioning for her to follow. "This has potential," Kate amends her first statement. She follows John crawling for a few feet, up a ladder, and through another access port to a door. Entering the room behind it, Kate is stunned. "This is kriffing awesome," she grins wide-eyed. The room is filled with some blankets, pillows, a discarded conference chair, a small table, telepresentor, replicator, and various posters. All the kids from the ship are sitting around chatting.
"Fucking. It is fucking I think you mean. You sound like a dork when you keep saying stuff like that," John reprimands.
"Dunno bro. Might be nice to say stuff the parental units don't know the meaning of. And if we say if nice enough they might think we are givin' them a compliment," Ronin comments from across the room. "Like that birthday present was so kriffing great. I wish I had two." He says it so nicely that Kate bursts out laughing.
"Well my da….Kirk knows kriffing but I got a lot more where that came from," Kate laughs.
"Why don't you call him dad?" Joanna asks sincerely from a pile of pillows across the room drinking a cold thick brown drink from a straw.
"Because he's not," Kate shoots back pissed. From the hurt look she sees on Joanna's face Kate knows she should apologize. "I just met him and he threw my mom out when she was pregnant with me. Jim Kirk is not someone I want for a dad."
"You are smoking crack," Cameron says as if she is crazy. "Captain Kirk has never LEFT anyone anywhere. No matter what. I've heard people on his away missions talk about how he fought to make sure they all came back no matter how hopeless it was. Remember that time,"
"Yeah well I guess he had a change of heart once he became Captain of the Enterprise. He sure wasn't around when I was little and needed him." With all the kids are staring at her, Kate quickly changes the subject to avoid answering any more questions. "Is that a replicator?"
"Yeah," Cameron says smiling. "It took all three of us to get it down here. The last time we were at Star base 12 it broke and they were going to throw it out but I hid it. Now we can get anything we want that is not on our food cards without our parents knowing."
"They ration your food," Kate says shocked. If this is the case, Kate needs to plan ahead. Being hungry was not an experience she enjoyed.
"Yeah and it's all her dad's fault," John says throwing a pillow at Joanna.
"Hey imagine what I typically get being his daughter. You do not have it as rough as me," she says giggling. When she sees Kate looking confused she continues. "It's not rationing like you can't get enough to eat but more of rationing what you want. See our parents can lock out or limit things from the four basic foods groups i.e. Pizza, chocolate, ice cream, coke. The never limits fruit and vegetables." Kate makes a quick mental note to see if Kirk has done this already at dinner. "Anything you want that your dad, uh, the Captain won't let you have?" she asks.
"Well, since I am obviously not from around here they have nothing I request like nerf medallions, ryshcate or mallapetal. I don't really know what to ask for," Kate shrugs. "I also am not picky. I generally eat anything."
"That all sounds gross," John comments making a puking face.
"It's not," Kate reassures him. "In fact most of the stuff is the same but only goes by a different name."
"Well mallapetal sounds like milkshake so let's try some stuff out to see what you like HERE," John suggests. He begins replicating so many things that Cameron starts complaining it will overheat. John tells him to relax taking command. Kate can definitely tell that he is Jack's son. After 30 minutes of stuffing themselves Erika quickly announces the time. They all start leaving one by one so that they won't be noticed. After about 10 minutes, John and Kate are alone. He wanted it this way but not that they are alone Kate is uncharacteristically quiet. Attempting to start a conversation, he throws a Hershey Kiss at her forehead. As it bounces off he screams, "And the crowd roars for more HHHHHHHHH."
Kate laughs throwing it back at him. "How have the adults not found out about this place and put an end to your party?"
"Cameron has spliced video of empty access tunnels into a loop that plays only on those cameras. Nothing ever happens down. If the parental units even check the cameras, they would see the same thing without the loop. We run it on the off chance someone is watching when we enter or exit. It also has something to do with being under the warp core. When they do ship-wide scans the radiation blocks this room from their sensors."
"We are under the engine," Kate cries out.
"Scared," John shoots back grinning. It is the first time Kate looks nervous about something she hasn't caused.
"No," she says. "Damn. Right, it's damn." John nods back indicating her word choice is accurate looking at the clock. "We have about ten minutes to be home by 6 before you get in trouble. Can we make it?"
"If we run," he says leading them back to their quarters. It is one minute to six when the breathless pair reaches the senior living quarters of Jack and Samantha O'Neill.
"Dude you are so fast," John pants walking into the room with Kate smiling behind him. "Hey Mr. Jim," John says flopping on the couch.
"Feet," Sam reminds him. Groaning he swings his feet to the floor but still sprawls across the couch.
"Mr. Jim?" Kate asks Kirk. "I get Mr. O'Neill or Coronel O'Neill and he gets Mr. Jim," she laughs. Kirk feels better seeing his daughter is smiling with slightly flushed cheeks. Her absence for the past hour and a half from running God knows where on his ship had him concerned. Especially since he told Micheals and Paulson to give her space. It was a trial thing and apparently, Kate spent the time making friends and not causing trouble.
"That's two ll's," Jack jokes looking at Kate. "Fair is fair Jim. Call me the Grand Poohbah or maybe Oh Amazin' One but definitely not Mr. O'Neill," he says rocking back and forth on his heels.
"Let's settle for Mr. Jack huh? Off duty or after hours," Kirk opens the door to leave.
From behind him Jack is mouths "any time" with a grin.
"Stop corrupting my daughter," Kirk barks making Kate laugh. "Night O'Neill," Jim waves goodbye. "Had fun after school today with the kids?" he asks entering their quarters.
"Oh yeah," Kate flops on the couch like John did five minutes earlier. "Can I get a PADD account? Joanna has some great music on her PADD and they said it's real easy to get one." Kate starts chattering on about random events during the day both serious and fun from the couch.
Kirk watches her and can tell it is all going to work out eventually. "See sweetheart. You just had to give it a chance. Things can be as good here as they were under the rock you were living on before," he smiles to himself and just enjoys her being happy. He decides against bringing up the Uhura incident. He hopes she learned her lesson but since she is a Kirk probably not. He will deal with it the next time. When she finally comes up for air, Kirk suggests dinner. Kate comes clean about the eating binge she went on but not where she did it. "OK this time but maybe we could eat together tomorrow. I'm starved." She nods a yes and Jim goes to the mini replicator in the room and orders up a sandwich.
"Wanna watch a movie?"
"I guess," she says and Jim quickly brings up an old movie from 1981 called Indiana Jones. He can tell Kate loves it except for commenting on them being 'way pre-republic' which he interprets as his stone age. Half way through the movie, she starts to yawn. Without thinking he grabs a pillow puts it in his lap patting it with his hand. Kate immediately puts her head down curling her feet up on the couch. He covers her with a blanket from the back of the couch. They stay that way until the credits roll and as he starts to get up, she puts a hand on his knee. "Can we watch the next one? You said there were three more."
Kirk is about to protest because it is a school night, but she snuggles a little deeper onto his lap in preparation for a yes response. "Sure. Last one though and don't whine you're tired in the morning," he says propping up his feet and turning on the 'Temple of Doom'. Kate is very engrossed in the film, but he cannot stop staring at her. "This feels so natural. Like we have done this our entire lives. Fuck you Lauren for not giving her to me sooner. Maybe I can do this," Jim thinks to himself watching her fall asleep in his lap. The movie ends and she is snoring softly dead to the world. "Lights 10%," he whispers loud enough for the room to respond to his command. "I'm not gonna be able to move tomorrow," he mutters but slides down just enough to rest his head on the back of the couch draping one hand around her body.
Kate rolls onto her back and half-asleep murmurs, "Night dad." She sleepily takes his hand that is now across her stomach. Kirk suddenly is scared to move at all for fear of waking her up and losing this moment with her. He simply closes his eyes enjoying it until he falls asleep himself.